Dominican Businesses Open Doors in Supermarket Industry

Dominicans have a great passion for business, you could say they’re salesmen by nature and their contributions to the economy are becoming a vital part of the growth of big cities like New York. The big apple has 720 thousand inhabitants and the contribution of their businesses to the Gross Domestic Product of the city is above 11%.

In the Hispanic supermarket industry, Dominicans have been especially highlighted, creating known store chains along the country’s coast, like Fine Fare, Compare Foods and Bravo Supermarkets.

This is why there’s a growing interest in the Dominican Republic to bring new businesses and products, taking advantage of the quality of property stores of Dominicans in the U.S.

“The Dominican consumer in this part of the northeastern United States is very broad and we understand that we have a good niche to develop and we hope that our products of quality made in the Dominican Republic can grow and fill all the expectations of consumers,” said Eduardo R. Morales, Specialist of the Export and Investment Center of the Dominican Republic (CEI-RD), in an interview with Abasto.

80 percent of members at the NSA were of Dominican origin

The CEI-RD with the Association of Dominican Exporters, were present in New York during the business trade show of the National Supermarket Association (NSA), where more than 80 percent of their members were from Dominican origin.

Morales said that for the first time, they took many Dominican companies to the trade show with the support of ADOEXPO in a public and private effort, “to continue fostering the country’s exports.”

Bilateral trade between the US and the Dominican Republic amounted to $12,470 million in 2016, with US exports to the Caribbean country for a total of $7,800 million and imports from the Dominican Republic for $4,680 million, according to Expor.gov, an entity that is part of the Department of Commerce of the United States.

Continue stimulating this commercial exchange and open more doors to support the creation of new businesses is a primary task, the Consul General of the Dominican Republic in New York, Carlos Castillo, assured Abasto. “We are striving more every day so that there is a deeper link with Dominican producers and supermarket owners, that have opened the doors so that Dominican products that are in great demand among our community here can be placed on all the shelves,” said Consul Castillo.